Lu Mingfei: What? They're all real!

"Someone will write to me?" He smiled, catching the envelope the gatekeeper tossed to him, a hint of anticipation in his eyes.

However, he didn't see a name on the envelope that was obviously a girl's; he only saw a Chicago postmark. Before he could read the contents of the letter any further, he completely lost interest.

The first decision Lu Mingfei made this morning was to stop focusing on pointless things like "studying abroad." He wasn't a prodigy like Zhao Menghua or Su Xiaoqiang; even a little academic embellishment wouldn't make him any more respectable. He needed to focus on more meaningful things—like trying his luck to find the old acquaintance he bumped into yesterday…

"Refuse to accept~"

He casually tossed the letter back, but the gatekeeper was quick and threw something heavy out the window first.

"There's another package; please sign for it."

The security guard tossed a form over to Lu Mingfei, demanding he sign it without explanation, then shut the window tightly, refusing to say another word. It seemed Shilan Middle School was full of hidden talents; even the security guard looked down on a notorious loser like Lu Mingfei and didn't want to waste time talking to him. Of course, Lu Mingfei always preferred to think the best of people; he was more inclined to believe that his constant pestering of him, making three trips a day to ask if there was any mail for him, had annoyed the guard to no end.

At that time, Lu Mingfei really cared about whether he could study abroad. It sounded so wonderful!

You didn't get into Peking University not because you didn't like it, nor because you couldn't pass the exam, but simply because you had better options. As for whether foreign schools are better than Peking University, or whether you've made something of yourself, that's not something a high school student should be concerned about. At this stage, only saving face is the most practical thing in a young person's life.

A boy with shrugged shoulders and an unsteady demeanor strolled around the campus, but today his back was straighter than usual, and his head was no longer buried as if he were about to fall into the ground. He walked unsteadily, casually opening a package, and saw a cell phone.

cell phone?

Lu Mingfei frowned. He had never expected to see such a thing, especially one that looked like a high-end Nokia N96. A genuine one would cost over five thousand yuan. He had seen it on a forum; his uncle had almost squeezed out a few tears when he was pleading with his aunt for one, just as pitiful as Lu Mingfei when he begged his aunt for three more yuan so he could have two more steamed buns in the morning.

How could something so valuable end up in an envelope someone gave him?

Lu Mingfei was completely baffled. He racked his brains and, before he knew it, he had arrived at the classroom door. He felt that he should take a closer look at the letter or the phone. Perhaps it was sent by his kind wife who also remembered that she had such a pitiful "husband" who even had to beg for food.

Maybe she's actually a wealthy heiress... and judging by the letter's appearance, it seems to have come from America. She might even be a bourgeois socialite. He'd better give her a good talking-to, hehe~

Such a wonderful feeling stirred within the boy's imaginative mind, causing him to grin and lighten his pace, as a gentle breeze brushed against his face.

But his pleasant mood didn't last long. Suddenly, someone blocked his way like an iron wall, and there was more than one. Without even looking away, Lu Mingfei knew that it was Zhao Menghua, who had been elbowed yesterday, and now wanted an explanation.

Lu Mingfei felt that Zhao Menghua definitely needed an explanation, just as he needed one himself. Lu Mingfei admitted that he might have completely become a coward ever since that fight he had a long time ago—he felt ashamed, but he didn't even have anyone willing to stand up for him, so where did he get the courage to confront others head-on?

But he's different now. From the moment he saw Lu Mingze when he got home last night, he suddenly felt a violent fire churning inside him, like a wild beast about to break free of its cage. Not only did no one bother him, but he even wanted to go looking for trouble with others. He felt that the world owed him something, and he had an urge to destroy everything and burn everything to ashes.

Now, whoever runs into a gun hole is doomed.

Lu Mingfei smiled and quietly looked at the guy opposite him. His waist slowly arched a little, and his eyes gleamed with a hidden light, restrained yet dangerous, like a lion poised to pounce.

Even if he really can't fight, and might just be throwing punches randomly, he won't back down when facing those black monsters, and he certainly won't now.

“Yes…yes…” Zhao Menghua finally spoke. His expression was not as relaxed as Lu Mingfei’s; it had a strange ferocity, but it wasn’t anger. It was more like he was in a dilemma. His lips trembled for a long time before he finally managed to say, “I’m sorry.”

sorry?

Lu Mingfei's smile froze on his face; he wondered if there was something wrong with his ears.

"I said, I'm sorry..." Zhao Menghua had a sense of self-abandonment, like he'd given up on everything. His head drooped, his shoulders hunched, and his voice was like a mosquito's hum, as he apologized perfunctorily, "I'm sorry, Lu Mingfei. I might have said something a bit harsh to you yesterday, which had a bad impact on you. I hope you don't mind. I'm also very happy to see that you're alright. I'll visit you at your home in a couple of days..."

His voice was flat, and his sentences were not even divided into paragraphs. In the end, it simply became like chanting a sutra, mechanically opening and closing his mouth as if completing a task. Finally, he let out a long sigh after he finished speaking.

Lu Mingfei was completely stunned. He blinked in disbelief, looking around at the students who had gathered around him, not even knowing what kind of expression he should make.

The dignified young master Zhao was now human-like, apologizing to an insignificant loser. Lu Mingfei preferred to believe he was still snuggled in bed rather than believe what he was seeing. What confused him even more was that his classmates seemed completely unsurprised by what was happening, as if they had expected it all along.

No, what's going on? Are you all possessed?

Lu Mingfei's profound and ancient aura vanished in an instant, and he instantly reverted to the always flustered loser he used to be.

"Lu Mingfei".

Suddenly, someone called his name from behind. It was Xu Miaomiao, Zhao Menghua's lackey. This chubby guy was almost as big as Lu Mingze. Although he wasn't tall, he took up a lot of space just standing there. Together with his twin brother Xu Yanyan, who was about the same size, they easily blocked all of Lu Mingfei's escape routes.

That's right, that's it!

Lu Mingfei was even overjoyed, somewhat belatedly realizing that what Zhao Menghua had just said must have been a delaying tactic to put him in a predicament.

That's more like it, otherwise I'd start to wonder if I'd traveled to some other world.

Thinking this, Lu Mingfei's back hunched over even more.

However, the person behind him was not what he expected. Xu Miaomiao was panting, as if she had run from a great distance. He hurriedly patted Lu Mingfei's shoulder, swallowed hard, and then said, "Someone is looking for you."

Is someone looking for me?

What's going on here?

Lu Mingfei was full of doubts, but the students watching now confirmed the reliability of this statement—they were all craning their necks to look at the other side of the corridor… He was wary that the guy on the other side might take the opportunity to punch him, so he quickly turned around and looked in the direction Xu Miaomiao was pointing.

The crowd had already formed two lines at some point, and everyone was consciously paying their respects. Everyone held their breath and stared intently, and for a moment it was unusually quiet. Even the whistling breeze outside the window became clear.

There stood a girl whose face seemed to radiate light.

Chapter 11 Holy crap! It's Jormungandr again!

The girl stood gracefully, her legs lightly crossed as if she had no weight. She blinked lightly, her face full of lively smiles. Just by standing there, she drew everyone's attention. Boys and girls alike stared at her, as if attracted by the radiance that seemed to emanate from her beauty.

And now she is waving at Lu Mingfei as if to show goodwill.

Everyone was stunned, even Zhao Menghua. He wondered if jumping off a building and then running wildly in the rain was really some kind of effective mysterious ritual. And did Lu Mingfei also have interactions with pretty girls?

Lu Mingfei, however, was not surprised at all. He even seemed overjoyed, as if he had expected this, and it was as if he wanted to rush up and grab her shoulders. This ecstasy seemed to frighten the visiting girl, and a troubled expression appeared on her face as she leaned back slightly.

However, she did not turn away in the end. Instead, she moved closer and walked lightly, like a breeze.

"Thank you~" The girl waved her hand to thank Xu Miaomiao, seemingly because she had asked him for help in finding out about Lu Mingfei.

"N-nothing...we're all classmates..."

Xu Miaomiao, who had completely forgotten about her boss in a second, scratched the back of her head and grinned foolishly, while Xu Yanyan, standing next to her, tried to emphasize that he had also contributed while maintaining his composure.

However, after the girl politely thanked him, it was as if she no longer saw the two gentlemen who were blocking her view like basketballs. She nimbly bypassed their defenses and went straight to Lu Mingfei.

"Um..." She seemed to struggle with the tone of her voice, and it took her a long time to find the right way to speak.

The girl clasped her hands together and winked at Lu Mingfei as if pleading, "I have something I want to tell you, could you come with me for a moment? Please, please~"

hiss--

Before Lu Mingfei could react, Zhao Menghua's clenched teeth finally broke down. He gasped, his mind a complete blank as he couldn't comprehend what he had just witnessed. Yesterday, after Lu Mingfei jumped off the building, he had already suffered enough from being severely scolded by Su Xiaoqiang—this usually proud and polite girl, who might even have liked him, had almost dug up his ancestors from their graves and whipped their corpses.

But the facts were indeed unfavorable to him. Lu Mingfei did jump off the building after talking to him. If this matter were investigated thoroughly, he would definitely encounter trouble. After all, trouble is trouble, no matter how small.

Filled with resentment, he decided to take things slowly for now. After all, he had plenty of ways to teach this guy a lesson, so there was no rush... At least in Zhao Menghua's view, even if things didn't go well, he could still use his relationship with Chen Wenwen to get back at Lu Mingfei. In fact, everyone knew that Lu Mingfei liked Chen Wenwen, and everyone knew that Chen Wenwen liked him, Zhao Menghua. Everyone just kept it to themselves. Only Lu Mingfei, that fool, was completely oblivious.

Zhao Menghua's targeting of Lu Mingfei was not without reason. After all, Lu Mingfei was one of only two people invited to the literary society by Chen Wenwen, alongside him. Although Lu Mingfei was usually cowardly and unlucky, he was still a threat. Young Master Zhao couldn't tolerate such a person. He wouldn't stop until he crushed Lu Mingfei into the dust.

He did it very successfully. Although there was no overt targeting, his covert actions and words had long since turned Lu Mingfei into a complete loser, someone that no one respected.

But now he saw a girl who could make people unable to look away just by standing on the roadside, clasping her hands together as if begging to speak to Lu Mingfei.

What's going on? Should I also find a building to jump off?

Zhao Menghua felt extremely uncomfortable.

Lu Mingfei was also extremely uncomfortable. Although it sounded strange, he felt that the girl in front of him seemed to have a murderous intent towards him, and her smile concealed a strong killing intent.

"Please, it'll only be a little while," the girl continued to plead, her eyes blinking faster and faster as if she were about to squeeze out a few tears.

Lu Mingfei felt even more vigilant and shook his head slightly.

"Lu Mingfei, what are you afraid of? Go for it!" someone started to jeer.

The crowd suddenly erupted into chaos, and Lu Mingfei found himself with nowhere to turn. A hand, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, pushed his shoulder and shoved him out of the crowd as if jeering. He was quite certain that the hand didn't belong to Zhao Menghua; that guy was practically begging him to stay by his arm...

So he was ushered out of the crowd and stood with the pretty girl in a place far away from the crowd. The cunning pretty girl waved to the crowd incessantly and thanked them sweetly, but her more important purpose was to keep them even further away.

Next comes time for the two of them to be alone.

"Um, we met yesterday, right?" The girl still had a sweet smile on her face; she looked like a simple and cute schoolgirl. She seemed very concerned about something and asked impatiently, "It was over the overpass, right? I think I heard you greet me yesterday, but you might have mistaken me for someone else. Let me introduce myself first, my name is Xia Mi—"

"What are you saying? Aren't you Jormungandr?" Lu Mingfei rudely interrupted the girl.

This was his first sentence to the girl that day, and it clearly provoked her. Her face instantly contorted into a ferocious expression, as if she were about to shed her skin and emerge from her cocoon as a monstrous dragon. She was more agitated than a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and was just short of opening her blood-red maw and exhaling a powerful breath.

But she managed to suppress all her emotions, and although her smile had become stiff, she still forced a smile.

“You’ve mistaken me for someone else.” The girl named Xia Mi spat out these words through clenched teeth, emphasizing repeatedly, “My name is Xia Mi. I don’t know what that name you’re talking about, ‘Ye something,’ means. Who would have such a name? It’s not a person’s name, is it? You must have mistaken me for someone else.”

Although her tone was firm, she looked far too nervous, her legs trembling as if she were about to run away, like a deadbeat being chased down for a debt.

Lu Mingfei stared at her strangely, scrutinizing her from head to toe. He had no doubt about his memory; he was simply curious why this girl would say such a thing. Although he had excitedly told Su Xiaoqiang just yesterday that Jormungandr was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, seeing her up close today... he felt that her real appearance might be much more grotesque, or even that she might not be human at all...

What made him even more anxious was that he always harbored a murderous intent towards the beautiful girl in front of him... It was a hatred from the depths of his soul, as if she had stabbed him in the chest.

Lu Mingfei didn't think he was the type to be ruthless or have any perverted thoughts about pretty girls; otherwise, he would have made a move on Chen Wenwen long ago...

Where did this murderous intent come from? He was puzzled, yet he couldn't recall any memories that could connect it to anything.

"Um, are you from Kassel?" Seeing that he hadn't spoken for a long time, the girl cautiously peeked out and asked, "Or are you from somewhere else...one of our own?"

Lu Mingfei didn't reply. He seemed to be thinking. After a long while, he suddenly blurted out a question.

Do you recognize the name Odin? Do you know him?

Lu Mingfei asked twice, but the second time he used a strange pronunciation. It was a strange pronunciation that he had painstakingly found in his memory while huddled in bed last night. He felt that it was the correct way to pronounce the name "Odin," not a translation of Chinese or English, but the original pronunciation of the name.

The sound of pronouncing it was so good that Lu Mingfei even started to figure out how to pronounce "Jormungandr". He tried a few times and then pronounced the syllables that he thought were correct.

Then, as if a giant bell had been struck, the short syllables echoed repeatedly. The clouds were blown by the wind, blocking the sun, and the world instantly darkened. The torrential rain that swept across the world last night was about to return, as if to recreate yesterday's apocalyptic scene.

The girl mirrored her disheveled state from the previous day; in the blink of an eye, boundless panic crept onto her face, like Spider-Man, who had been hiding his identity, having his mask removed in public. She reacted particularly strongly to Lu Mingfei's strange pronunciation. She could no longer endure it; she mechanically turned around, staggering as if her legs had lost all strength, but her consciousness still drove her to control her body with all her might.

Lu Mingfei didn't know why, but he saw the girl run away in a disheveled state once again.

Chapter 12 You rejected her, right?

Lu Mingfei returned to his seat, but before he could even sort out his thoughts or properly examine the letters and packages he had received that day, he was overwhelmed by a barrage of gossip.

With his remaining shred of reason, he vaguely heard that Su Xiaoqiang had chased and berated Zhao Menghua for an entire hour yesterday, and then he heard the "fact" that he had been labeled as "bullied by Zhao Menghua and jumped off a building"...

He never expected things to turn out this way, and he never expected Su Xiaoqiang to be so loyal. He had always thought she liked Zhao Menghua.

But the more shocking fact quickly overshadowed all of this. In the short time Lu Mingfei had just stopped, he had already become the image of "coldly refusing to let a girl who came to the school to confess her love, but accepting the expensive mobile phone gift from the girl"—the mobile phone in his hand was irrefutable proof!

He racked his brains trying to figure out how such a rumor came about, but rumors among students don't need a reason at all; they spread faster and faster until they quickly became accepted facts.

So, in a very strange way, Lu Mingfei has now transformed. He is no longer the pitiful guy whose name is only mentioned when people are joking around. He is now sitting in the last row of seats, surrounded by people who are all trying to strike up a conversation with him.

Fortunately, the school bell saved him.

Lu Mingfei was never the teacher's focus. He struggled to even get into a top-tier university, so the teachers wouldn't waste their time on him. Even if he dozed off in class and drooled all over his desk, few teachers would even glance at his seat.

But this is a good thing; at least now he can secretly play with his new phone and letters without any hindrance.

Both items were mailed from the same address, and Lu Mingfei felt he could rule out the possibility that they were mailed to the wrong address—his name was written on them.

He decided to start by reading the letter. If it was from the beautiful girl in his memory, then her contact information might be in his phone. He felt he should read her heartfelt confession first, and then call her; that would be more romantic.

"Uh……"

But the contents of the letter left him speechless. It was about his "study abroad"—an invitation from an obscure school he had never heard of, asking him to come for an interview.

But he has absolutely no interest in studying abroad right now, especially in a place called "Kassel," which sounds like a diploma mill.

and many more.

Lu Mingfei suddenly recalled Jormungandr's words. She seemed to have mentioned this name as well... There was no mistake. Right now, he only had two modes of memory in his mind: "clearly remember" and "sealed". He couldn't be wrong. Jormungandr did ask him "Are you from Kassel?"

What kind of place is this?

He felt his head was full of question marks. He really had no impression of this name, not even a vague feeling of familiarity. He had never heard of this name in his long life.

Filled with boundless curiosity, he pushed open the phone's keypad and started typing away. Although he was a staunch Apple fan online, in reality, the poor guy Xiao Lu didn't even own a mobile phone. But that didn't stop him from being a tech geek, nor did it stop him, as a former enemy agent, from having already figured out how to operate a Nokia.

There is only one contact in the phone's address book.

"Guderian?!"

Although it was during class, Lu Mingfei couldn't contain his surprise. He exclaimed the name in astonishment, only to be angrily shouted at by the teacher, "Some people shouldn't disturb other students' desire for knowledge!" He then sullenly shrank back into his seat and buried his head under the desk.

But he still wanted to launch into a long rant about this guy named Guderian. He was afraid this guy was a tank driver, and he was even more worried that this so-called "Kassel" was some kind of secret institution run by another guy named Goebbels... The first lesson he learned upon entering the school was to take a shower...

This kind of place is unreliable.

He made a quick decision, then stuffed his phone and the message into his desk drawer, no longer focusing on studying abroad. Lu Mingfei now didn't even want to go to university; he found it pointless...

But once he put down his phone and letters, he had nothing to do. He could only prop his head up with his hand, look out the window, and ponder how to achieve his vague and unattainable goal.

……

"Lu Mingfei, are you alright?"